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PurposeRetailers are increasingly using self-service technologies to improve customer experience and reduce costs. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that could explain the level of continuance intention of mobile self-scanning applications in retail. Based on previous theoretical streams, the present study integrates technology readiness (TR) and service quality into the technology acceptance model.Design/methodology/approachUsing data collected through an online survey of 217 users of a mobile self-scanning application of a large supermarket chain operating in Portugal, the study uses partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that the continuance usage of the self-scanning apps is directly driven by users' satisfaction and perceived usefulness. Findings also show that TR has a positive and significant impact on ease of use and perceived usefulness. Ease of use has a positive impact on users' satisfaction and perceived usefulness but has no direct effect on the continuance intention to use the application. Perceived quality has a positive direct effect on satisfaction and a positive indirect effect on continuance intention. Finally, need for interaction has a negative effect on TR.Originality/valueThis work contributes to a better understanding of the emerging market for mobile self-scanning applications in retail applications, particularly relevant in a digital transition context.

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RESUMO: Este artigo discute o conceito de comunidades de prática on-line (CoP). Seu propósito é descrever e analisar a formação e consolidação de uma CoP composta por professores de História da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Belo Horizonte, bem como as potencialidades desse contexto no desenvolvimento profissional de professores. A metodologia usada foi a Netnografia. Foram identificados os elementos estruturais, estágio de desenvolvimento da comunidade e indicadores de eficiência. Essas informações permitiram traçar o diagnóstico do grupo, evidenciando os aspectos que permitem caracterizar um grupo de professores como uma comunidade on-line de prática e o estágio de desenvolvimento da gestão dessa comunidade. Os resultados desta investigação evidenciam que a CoP pode ser, de fato, uma estratégia pedagógica apropriada para o desenvolvimento profissional de professores. Palavras-chave: Comunidades On-line

Summary The study of microorganism consortia, also known as biofilms, is associated to a number of applications in biotechnology, ecotechnology and clinical domains. Nowadays, biofilm studies are heterogeneous and data-intensive, encompassing different levels of analysis. Computational modelling of biofilm studies has become thus a requirement to make sense of these vast and ever-expanding biofilm data volumes.The rationale of the present work is a machine-readable format for representing biofilm studies and supporting biofilm data interchange and data integration. This format is supported by the Biofilm Science Ontology (BSO), the first ontology on biofilms information. The ontology is decomposed into a number of areas of interest, namely: the Experimental Procedure Ontology (EPO) which describes biofilm experimental procedures; the Colony Morphology Ontology (CMO) which characterises morphologically microorganism colonies; and other modules concerning biofilm phenotype, antimicrobial susceptibility and virulence traits. The overall objective behind BSO is to develop semantic resources to capture, represent and share data on biofilms and related experiments in a regularized fashion manner. Furthermore, the present work also introduces a framework in assistance of biofilm data interchange and analysis - BiofOmics (http://biofomics.org) - and a public repository on colony morphology signatures - MorphoCol (http://stardust.deb.uminho.pt/morphocol).